Naruto 653 – Right Through The Facade

The talk-no-jitsu chapter is here as expected and what we get this week is Naruto shredding through Obito’s facade. Like Rin before him, Naruto exposes Obito’s weak resolve and flawed reasoning—forcing him to stop running and face the music. Whether he ends up accepting Naruto’s hand is still up for grabs, but it looks like the end of the fight is officially upon us either way, and it’s an end many viewers likely saw coming after recent chapters. With that said, this doesn’t prevent the chapter from being a good one—even if some elements are a hit and miss.

Because ultimately, this chapter gives us the final piece of the puzzle that is Obito. Via the flashbacks, we see how Rin was much more than just a friend—she was possibly his future wife—and in ways, it’s no wonder he turned out the way he did. This doesn’t excuse what he’s done or how he’s “twisted reasons” to justify what he does, but it does make him someone you can feel more sympathetic for.

Essentially, Obito’s a character who was so shattered by a loss that he strayed from his original path. But whereas other characters managed to find their ways back, he ended up straying so far that there was no longer any way to go back, and admitting he made a mistake would’ve just put the final nail in the coffin (and pushed him over the edge). The way I see it, he ended up only having one reason to live, and even though it was reason that was twisted beyond recognition, there was no option for him but to pursue it. In that context, I can understand why he ended up being the way he was, and this chapter did contribute to me changing part of my opinion regarding him. Again, it’s not nearly enough to completely change my opinion, but it does change part of it, and it makes this chapter a good one in my book—though I can see where many would probably disagree with this assessment.

Either way, a lot of these revelations—and the dialogue in general—come a bit too late in the game for me to feel as sympathetic as I otherwise would’ve. It’s just hard to feel for someone who has committed so many atrocities in the past few hundred chapters, and it makes me wonder if some of the content in this chapter wouldn’t have served better at some earlier segment. Alas, there’s no use crying over spoiled milk, so next thing to do is look toward the future—a future that will likely involve Obito taking Naruto’s hand and stopping his charade. At that point, I reckon Madara’ll try to seize the Tsukuyomi by force, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if Obito ends up sacrificing himself to take him down. It wouldn’t be the best of endings, but would be consistent with what we’ve seen so far from the series. Furthermore, it would open up a chance for Sasuke to receive some kind of reprieve, and set things up for a friendly dual between him and Naruto as the series finale. Guess we’ll see.

I can imagine that Obito will now understand Nagato. The only question is, what will Madara do, and what is he doing? I don’t suppose Madara would just say “Just as planned” as soon as Naruto seemly wins.

“Future wife”? That seems a bit presumptuous considering who she liked in all her other flashbacks both before and after Obito “died.” The chapter does show that they had a close friendship, which helps to explain why he fell apart. As you mentioned though, it would have been nice to see this earlier. It’s rather ironic that he’s an orphan though, Konoha seriously needs some child services. The dialogue and character designs were great this chapter, and I really liked how it referenced the very beginning with the “no shortcuts to Hokage.” Objectively the infinite tsukiyomi is a shortcut, and though it would bring peace, it wouldn’t be a real peace and isn’t what a Hokage or hero should try to achive. Definitely one of the better Talk no Jutsu’s in recent years. The only complaint I have is that the white backgrounds kinda grated and felt a bit lazy.

Seems like Madara’s up next, and don’t forget about Orochimaru. I’m hoping we get at least one unrepentant villain… :/

@Hochmeister: She was basically saying she’d never leave his side and that she always wanted to be with him. If that isn’t a love confession then I don’t know what is. Of course it had to do with his promise of becoming a Hokage to stop the war as well, but there was a subliminal message hidden in her words for sure.

@Ryudo: I disagree. If you want examples of confessions (real and fake) take a look at Sakura and Hinata’s. Promising to stay by someone’s side and watch over them can be a romantic gesture, but is ambiguous in Rin’s case as she loved another guy and only promised to watch over and support him until he became Hokage. As Da5id said, given her love of Kakashi it’s more likely that this was a friendly, not romantic gesture. Just because a girl is friendly to a guy doesn’t mean she’s automatically in love with him (and vica versa). Anyway, the point of the Rin flashback was not to showcase Rin’s feelings towards Obito, but rather why she was so important to him.

I hope the next developments aren’t as painfully obvious as they seem (i.e., Madara makes his move and Obito sacrifices himself to stop him and is welcomed by a smiling Rin in the afterlife). One possible development would be that the tree will take back all the chakra and revert the world back to before the time of the sage of the six paths. That would ruin Orochimaru’s day for sure, all his abilities he collected would be useless and would he even be able to live in his current form without chakra? Also Kabuto would wake up and Hidan would finally die for real.

It more than likely still would’ve happened, but considering Obito took care of an unknown amount himself, it probably would not have resulted in ALL of the other Uchiha being killed sans Sasuke, so perhaps more survivors (maybe). However, as soon as it was discovered they were alive, they more than likely would’ve been killed afterwards by Danzo’s ANBU anyway (given the destruction of the clan was the goal), or at least had “accidents” in future missions to ensure their deaths thus the results would’ve been the same overall.

Itachi wouldn’t have intiated a massacre unless he knew he could complete it. The complete annihilation of the Uchiha was needed for Itachi’s plan to take affect and Itachi is not one to go into something half-assed. Unless Itachi could have found someone with strength comparable to Obito’s the massacre likely wouldn’t have happened.

Nope. No Kyuubi attack = no suspicion about the Uchiha clan, and an Uchiha Hokage would deal with their concerns about Senju domination. Thus, the Uchiha clan would have no reason at all to form a coup, preventing the massacre.

Suspicion of the Uchiha had been around ever since Madara’s betrayal, as was a portion of the Clan’s lust for power, largely due to Tobirama’s hatred of them and actions against them during his reign as Hokage, and Danzo obviously fully embraced that suspicion, as did Homura and Koharu. Up until Kurama’s attack, however, they really had no real argument to use to convince Hiruzen to do something about them.

Plot Twist: Naruto replaces Rin as Obito’s love interest after hearing him say the exact same words and they start making Yaoi love. TAKE THAT NARU-SASGAY SHIPPERS. ಠ_ಠ

On a totally separate note his death seems ever more likely. I seriously can’t see him just being accepted and forgiven by the villages. He’ll probably stop Madara from doing stuff in the end. In fact, this whole arc might as well be a repeat of Nagato’s fight in just bigger fashion.

People keep comparing Nagato and Obito in this case, but I actually disagree and I find that Obito’s case feels much more jarring in comparison to how the situation was dealt with Nagato and here’s why:

I don’t mind what Nagato did in the Pain Invasion Arc. The turnover was justified, and despite their seeming agreement, Nagato and Naruto held a firm stance in terms of what they believed. The key thing here was that Nagato was cornered, and essentially forced by Naruto to explain himself or leave. Even then, in the end Naruto never tried to convince Nagato to change sides, and it was Nagato’s own internal realization that led to him reviving the deceased (realize how even Naruto was surprised at his turnover).

They both believed the same thing, but tried to accomplish it through different means, and it’s what makes Nagato’s choice much more convincing. What I like was how Nagato’s self-realization came NOT from the fact that he realized how he “turned bad”, but rather how he failed to uphold the very ideals that he supposedly preach when embarking on the path he took as “Pain”.

The main difference here is that with Nagato, it was based on taking a new path in order to uphold the exact same ideal of bringing peace (remember, Pain actually wanted to achieve peace through deterrence, so it’s not that far-fetched for him to re-assess his methods and put his faith in Naruto who seemed to want the same thing all while showcasing how he had a strong conviction), whereas with Obito, the most jarring part about this potential turnover is how it’s simply based on how he couldn’t go after his dream and Naruto is simply spelling this out for him. It makes his character seem utterly petty, especially since a lot of his views are based on a sense of denial unlike Nagato who was actually dead-set on trying to achieve the same goal only through different means without any sense of denial.

The re-use of certain lines from Nagato’s exchange with Naruto makes this chapter all the more awkward (“How can you be so sure that you won’t change?!”), especially since the circumstances are different this time around and how in contrast to Nagato’s firm stance, Obito is depicted as being pretty much in denial in terms of what he preaches.

So much padding! Listening to Naruto’s “I understand your pain” lectures hurt so much that it should be illegal. Someone, anyone! Shut them up. I wouldn’t even mind if a main character died, just as long as we skip the dialogue!

May be because Obito didn’t do really stupid or careless and dangerous for himself things like Naruto sometimes do. Sakura is the caring person (that’s why she became a ninja medic) and never beat Naruto for nothing (in manga).

As I mentioned in previous chapters, that’s really the big flaw Kakashi had as Team 7′s sensei; the belief that his Team 7 was little more than a total overlap of his Team 7 (and probably the Sannin too).

…while some basic traits can be overlapped, it wasn’t much beyond that, and as a result, Kakashi ended up completely overlooking/ignoring their own unique, individual personalities, pasts, strengths, weaknesses, problems, potential, etc, and just kept treating them as some “reincarnation” of his own team in some (subconscious) way of making up for the past.

Correct me if im wrong, but i think there is a basis to obito’s way of achieving peace, there wont be any war, but there will also be no free will. So, I do see how obito wants to complete the final tsukiyomi whatever its called, is justified

Man really, this entire manga has only become one giant uchiha emo-trip. be it obito, sasuke, madara, why must the mangaka be so in love with these fags?
The story would have been better if nagato/pain be the endboss and the real antagonist. Leave Obito, Madara dead and sasuke a side charakter that futilely tries to kill his way more talented brother. At least nagato had a acceptable goal, to unite the world through pain and the hatered against akatsuki (almost like lelouch in code geass). Ok obito has united the world too, but only as consequence from his selfish reasons. And the cheap cop-out with the “curse of the uchiha” what a load of crap, as if that is a justification for everything they have done!

There are lots of naruto fanfictions out there, most of them are crap but are still a lot that give you a way better story than kishimoto. Better read that for a change than this train-wreck.

I hope that Obito does not succumb to Talk to Jutsu. It would really ruin his character for me.

Also, I’m sorry I just don’t see Rin as Obito’s wife.
Hinata is a woman in love.
Karin is a woman in love.
Kushina was a woman in love.
Rin doesn’t give off that same vibe to me. Has more of a Riku/Kairi feel to it. BFF certainly, but I don’t see anything more than that

This chapter was focused as much on Obito as on Naruto. It’s actually quite amazing just how much he has matured and grown up. I find it very refreshing to see a philosophical discussion in a shouhen manga.

I mean he’s be living off of Madara for years. Does anyone think Obito could just back away from his deal with Madara and just walk away. Madara power may be “tax free”, but his power is NOT free. As Madara says. Obito will “thank him properly” whether he wants to or not.

I like how Naruto scolds Obit about him hiding his real self & the back flash of Rin came to mind. I wonder if he would do what Naruto say I mean the possible future he saw if he didnt take that path is holding him strong but the regret is there so its 50/50 change he might giv in. Though if Obit those stop his plans the war is not over since we still have Madara & there hints that he has a trump card soon to be release….

Well, if you remember Obito cared enough about Kakashi and Rin to sacrifice his life for it. He survived being half crushed to death, survived his isolation with Madara and only had the protection of those he loved in mind. He gave literally everything he had but in the end Rin still died.

Obito to me should be viewed as an extreme guy, idealistic, obsessive, emotional and took an extreme path, but in reality he was very much like naruto. Right now, everything Obito has built up is crumbling adown and hes come to face with the possibility that not only is he wrong, but hes possibly never even believed in the whole Eternal Tsukyomi idea.

If Pain was Naruto who took the wrong path, then Obito is Naruto who denied himself (as opposed to naruto who always believed in himself). Good storytelling here.

If Pain was Naruto who took the wrong path, then Obito is Naruto who denied himself (as opposed to naruto who always believed in himself). Good storytelling here.

That’s a very good way of describing the main difference between the two. In that regard, I just hope that the resolution won’t be the same this time around, and since Nagato already displayed a willful sacrifice, I can only hope that Kishi would offer something a bit different for Obito to at least further differentiate the two.

It was fine the first few times earlier on with ones like Haku, Gaara, and even Sasuke, but to KEEP continuously using the “Naruto gone wrong” foil for key antagonists just gets VERY tiresome and feels more like a sign of being unable to come up with anything else more original for villains, even if it’s based on different aspects.